Don’t Run Away From God

“But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" Genesis 3: 9.

God loves the sinner, but He hates sin. He will accept the sinner with all His heart; but He will never tolerate sin. Why does God hate sin so much? Sin will harm us and destroy our relationship with God. God created us for Himself! He longs to have communion and an intimate relationship with His created children. However, sin often hinders our relationship with God.

Human’s way of dealing with sin is always, “Running AWAY from God”. For mankind, “Running AWAY” is not something new. From the beginning of creation, human have the nature of running away or avoiding God when they sin against God.

Before Adam's fall (sin), He had an awesome intimate relationship with God. They talk, they walk together, and they discuss things together in the Garden of Eden. Adam has not feared facing God. Nevertheless, the moment Adam disobeyed God and sin against God, fear overwhelmed his heart; he ran away and hid himself from God, “… and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3:8.

Today, in this life, people are still running away from God for what they have done. The condemning feeling and guilty conscience often drives us to run away from God. Condemnation and guilty conscience are two effective tools for the devil to keep us away from God. The truth is ‘condemnation’ is not from God; it is from the devil. “Romans 8:1”.

Even tough, Adam runs away from God and hides himself; God was so gracious to him. God went and looked for Adam. “But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" Genesis 3: 9. God called Adam not to punish him; but it is because of His perfect love for mankind. Instead of punishing Adam, God had to kill an innocent animal to cover Adam and his wife’s shame. “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Genesis 3: 21.

My friend, no one is perfect in this world. Everyone makes mistakes on this journey of life. You and I still have hope in God. God’s wrath for sin fell upon the precious body of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus has paid completely all the wages of our sin. We are free from any kind of guilt. Today, our Heavenly Father is still calling, “Where are you?” He is still calling us not to punish us, but to clothe us with the robe of righteousness. Respond to His call! Don’t run away from Him, but run to Him.